Accepting the Bare Minimum: How Students of Minoritized Religions Cultivate Belonging Amongst Christian Hegemony
Open AccessThis dissertation answers the following research question: How does Christian hegemony influence sense of belonging for students of minoritized religions on a college campus? Institutions of higher education claim to be secular and inclusive spaces for their students (Jacobsen & Jacobsen, 2012; Joshi, 2020; Jun et al., 2018; Lang & Yandell, 2019). Some current research in this field tends to focus less on treating religious identity as a social justice issue and instead uses language such as ecumenical worldview and interfaith programming (Astin et al., 2011; Bowman et al., 2014). These are flawed because Christian hegemony is maintained by erasing nuanced differences amongst religious identities and focusing on similarities (Edwards, 2017b). The method was a critical instrumental case study, and data collection included a document analysis, student interviews, and staff interviews (Merriam, 2009). The research question was answered using Strayhorn’s (2012) Sense of Belonging Model and Small’s (2020) Critical Religious Pluralism Theory. Major themes and findings indicate that Christian hegemony makes it very difficult for students of minoritized religions to cultivate belonging outside of their personal religious communities. Additionally, secularism is a myth perpetuated to maintain Christian hegemony. While these findings are just one piece of understanding these lived experiences, there is plenty of room for furthering this research.
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